Summertime, and the living is easy

Now that the school year is done, the big question for university students is what are you going to do this summer? Some are doing summer courses, some are doing exchanges, some are working.

Summers in university are, for many students, about how you can use your time effectively; are you going to earn money? Get more credits and fast track your degree? Volunteer and get a new experience?
Myself? I have a very busy summer ahead of me! Although you wouldn't know it, if you saw what I've been doing for the last few days since I've been home... I've been sitting on my couch watching TV, eating, sleeping, napping, reading, learning ASL.

Wait what? Yup! I'm teaching myself ASL. My friend Krysta is taking American Sign Language at the Keele campus and she's been teaching me a little bit here and there. I, unfortunately, don't have room in my schedule next year to take it so I decided to take it on as a summer project. I'm teaching myself via Lifeprint and watching videos. There's tons of material on Youtube of people teaching signing and even signing to different songs. One interesting artist is Signmark; he's a deaf songwriter who then gets his friends to sing and rap them! Very cool! So the last few days I've been going through some lessons, and more exciting, I've been learning how to sign a song. I decided upon The One That Got Away by Katy Perry because... well I don't really remember. For the last three days I've been constantly repeating this song in sign to get it down to a place where I sort of look like I know what I'm doing! Ch-ch-check it out! :)

Besides my rather sloth-life behaviour the last few days I'm actually very excited for this summer! For the next two weeks, I'll be volunteering in some classes at my old high school! Then May 13, I'm headed to Trois-Pistoles, Quebec to participate in the Explore program! I can't wait for it! It should be very exciting! For those of you who don't know the Explore program is an exchange program that is run by the Canadian government to allow students across the country the chance to immerse themselves in an environment where there second language is predominately spoken; i.e. I'm going to Quebec to learn French, but I had a friend who came to Toronto last summer to learn English! It's 5 weeks, and you either live in a residence or with a host family. Myself, I'll be living with a family.

After that, I come back to good ol' Kitchener for less than a week because then I'm off to Toronto once again! I'm working with MWS Camps at UofT. It's an international ESL camp, in which I'll be a camp counsellor. For 5 weeks I'll be living in Victoria College at UofT, leading camp activities to children from a variety of cultures, languages and ages.

AFTER THAT, I'll be headed back to Kitchener for a couple of weeks before heading back to Glendon, getting ready for Frosh Week for #GL2016, and then starting my second year!

WHEW. I'm winded just telling you about all these things! I'll be sure to keep you updated all summer about what I'm doing with my summer, and how it's all going.


What about you guys? What are you doing for your summer? Any exciting plans? Comment here, tweet me, or post it on the #GL2016 Facebook Group! :)